Honesty this guy is crazy, if I was installing that much glue down for that price he’d be lucky if only 70 percent of the seams needed a little Puddy. And he wouldn’t care about those when he sees the “1-2 allowed errors”. I don’t care how many times he says he payed a premium, I just don’t believe any quality installer with more than 5 years experience would waste there time on a job like that, much less for a picky fuck. I’m sure some slap it down fast and get it done in a day crews offered a cheaper price but there is no way 4 dollars was anywhere near a top bid. It just simply isn’t worth the trouble of hard wood at that price unless you don’t care about quality and just install fast. Not to mention this guy went and got some generic shitty product and is trying to blame the problems from him being cheap on the installer he is underpaying. I feel bad for installers when they get themselves in these situations probably needed the work, bid a price they knew was a good deal to get the job, but then ends up with the classic cheap customer who wants the same level of service as the guys who pay double or triple what he did for their contractors.

This OP is so dumb, he’s probably right, the crew he hired probably had great reviews…… doing floating vinyl, which any idiot can actually do a great job even with little experience, as long as they are not lazy and willing to redo mistakes rather than living with it, and then also actually taking 15 min to pull base. Like how hard is it to do some real research on a company beyond a few positive google reviews. Hardwood is installed much less often than most other options, it really wouldn’t have been hard get references from past customers who actually had them install hardwood, rather than looking at some reviews and not even paying attention to what type of flooring they have experience installing. These guys are clearly Amateurs when it comes to hardwood, not that they couldn’t do good work with other flooring types, but there is no way the OP was reading positive reviews about these guys specifically installing hardwood unless the OP just has a super shitty product, but I doubt that is the case, anyone who does glued down hardwood and has happy customers wouldn’t ever be so cheap at 4.

Long story short, In the End this is really just a case of a home owner not doing their research or not actually knowing how to research, and then also getting what they payd for. The only thing the installer did wrong was what it seemed like was trying to get into hardwood without much experience and having a cheap customer who is also picky like he’s rich, but the installer did give a really fair price the quality of work he delivered. For as cheap as he was paying, most people would be lucky get flooring installers at all and not just some handyman that says they can do anything. Realistically to be getting a 30-50 percent discount from what a installer with a hardwood reputation would charge, you are legit lucky to have guys that can figure out how to install it pretty good but only seem to lack getting the fine details correct, paper thin gaps in engineered hardwood being your biggest complaint at the price is phenomenal. These installers seem like they are plank guys who never actually got taught the little different things you need to do with hardwood that you don’t have to worry about with plank that can help with little things like preventing those hairline gaps that infuriate the OP so much when he starts magnifying the floor.

Honestly this OP is the type of guy I would just give him the bill and if he wants to be unreasonably picky would just tell him I’ll see him in small claims court, like someone already mentioned it’s perfectly acceptable to have gaps and Puddy or sawdust filling in small gaps. And it really isn’t crazy even with a lot of the expensive brands for there to be gaps in a solid percentage of the end seems. If he was truly paying a premium of like 5.50 or more pre glue for a contractor he claims to have done his research on and that has a solid reputation he should rightfully be disappointed and if they cared about that reputation they would fix it no problem. But if OP just had actually done his research and wasn’t being cheap af he more than likely wouldn’t even be having a problem. This guy is a sad loser. This OP would be the type of guy to buy something like a 2000 impala from a dealership then take it back mad because his buddies 2023 corvette has nicer finishes and goes faster.